SOG Tech Bowie

Despite the severe late autumn weather of of the Martimes, Canada Post managed to run today. And I received the last of the three knives I planned to buy this year as part of the process of updating my bushcraft gear and replacing the beloved Ka-bar USMC knife I had through twenty years in the Alaskan wilderness and Canadian north woods (did I mention my wife lost it when I lent it to her for 15 minutes on a camping trip?) This time, having more funds at my disposal than I did in Alaska, I selected knives with intentions a little more specialized, though I must admit–the Ka-bar USMC knife is, IMO, an about perfect bushcraft knife, doing everything well from prepping a trout for cooking, to butchering a caribou, to carving wood to make tools. (Did I mention my wife lost that beloved knife when I lent it to her for 15 minutes on a camping trip?) If it had not been lost, I doubt I’d have ever bought another knife–I’m not a collector–far too practical.

So, today the last of the three knives I ordered arrived, a SOG Tech Bowie–which is close in size and design to the Ka-bar USMC (did I mentioned my beloved wife lost ?) but with some substantial differences. It’s made of AUS8 stainless steel. I used to hate stainless steel–in the old days, it was virtually impossible to sharpen, hard and brittle. It’s one virtue was it was almost impervious to rust.

Well, stainless steel has come a long way, baby.  AUS8 has got to be close to the perfect steel. With the right heat treatment, it’s hardness is equal to the best carbon steels, making it tough but able to take an edge and retain it without problem. It’s not quite as impervious to rust as the old garbage 440 stainless of the 80s and 90s, but it’s close.

The design of the SOG Tech makes it an almost perfect bushman’s knife. It is ostensibly designed for combat, using a bowie-style blade similar to the Ka-bar USMC, but if your main purpose for a knife is to prepare fish and game, prep food, cut cordage and shape wood into tools, it’s nearly perfect. The drop clip point is as sharp as a needle and would penetrate the toughest hide with ease. Personally, I would have preferred a beefier point such as you find on the Cold Steel Trail Master–it’s a bit tougher for tasks like creating the bowl portions of firebow rigs. I’d have willingly given up a little of the SOG Tech’s penetration power for that additional toughness as I am interested in a knife as a tool, not a weapon. And the needle-sharp point gives the SOG Tech a bit of a “tacticool” look, which I am not crazy about. Still, having studied dozens of other knives in the price range, I feel the SOG Tech was the closest to meet my needs. The other knives in the size and design range I was after that were close to the Tech were made in carbon steel, and I very specifically wanted a knife in stainless for those long wet periods eastern Canada is so prone to.  An alternative with bushcraft more in mind is the SOG Creed.  It sports the same hilt but is a bit heftier at the point, with a typical clip point with no drop intended to maximize toughness.  I was tempted by the Creed but decided against it because I don’t like knives that are bigger toward the front of the blade.  They make poor game processing knives and tend to have sheathing problems.

The SOG Tech has a stainless steel butt-cap and guard. Many newer knives offer guards made of the same polymer material the hilts are made from. Such guards occasionally crumble after a few years of moderate use. I was adamant that whatever knife I chose must have a metal guard. It was not so imporant to me the butt-cap be metal as I don’t use knives for hammers–that’s stupid as any handy stick or rock can make a better improvised hammer–but it is a nice touch that will add to the knife’s overall toughness. The guard is substantial in front of the fingers, keeping the fingers from slipping forward onto the razor-sharp blade. The guard also extends over the palm side, but is only half size, and it is easy to choke up on the blade for fine carving and cutting. The palm side guard is just substantial enough to stop the blade and palm from coming into contact but allow for easy fine work.

The black TiNi finish is beautiful. I haven’t had a chance to test it for durability yet, but I’ve heard it’s far tougher than Ka-bar finishes which last well if you don’t abuse them. I think the TiNi finish is unnecessary given the blade is stainless, but it can’t hurt and it looks great.

The blade is a quarter inch thick at the spine. It is a tough though not overly heavy, well-balanced tool that will last a lifetime with appropriate use and care.  It is easily the finest and most elegant of the three knives I bought to replace the Ka-bar (did I mention my wife lost it?).

When SOG makes a knife, they tend to do everything very nicely (excepting the garbage sheath that comes with their Northwest Ranger). The SOG Tech bowie comes with an extraordinary kydex sheath. It fits the knife like a glove, is suitable to any kind of carry, and since it won’t hold water, helps the knife stay dry and rust free.  It is a bit snug and you have to put in some effort to withdraw the knife but that will relax with time.

Overall, the SOG Tech bowie is an imminently practical work of art. I still like my Cold Steel Trail Master bowie a bit more, mainly because it is bigger and has a tougher drop clip point, but the AUS8 stainless steel and imminently useful size and design of the SOG Tech make it an extremely close second.

Pine Marten Spoor

Daphne and I just returned from a wee four mile hike through the forest to recover some rope I had left at a tree. Got some great photos of early winter ice at the Hollow Falls and came across some nice tracks and spoor. Most noteworthy would not be photographic to anybody but a fellow tracker, but I found pine marten droppings on a rock which the local coyote pack often use to mark their territory. In fact, coyote droppings were right beside it and the marten paid them no heed. The pine marten left its droppings right on top of the rocks, claiming the area for all weasel kind.

Cold Steel’s Prestidigitation

The Trail Master Bowie by Cold Steel–hands down, my absolute favorite knife for bushcraft and hunting.

I thought fellow fans of bushcraft knives might be curious about this news: Currently, some of Cold Steel’s most popular knives (the Trail Master and the Recon Scout) are made of SK5 which they are planning to switch to O1.  As I noted in my review of the Trail Master, SK5 is an excellent steel of moderate hardness and good rust resistance.  Such a big knife needs a more forgiving, less brittle steel.  SK5 is hard enough to take and hold a good edge, but it grinds easily for sharpening, and it is just springy enough to be used as  a chopper without chipping the edge or breaking the blade.  Below is a note on SK5 steel from knifesupply.com:

SK-5 : A high carbon steel made in Japan. It is the Japanese equivalent of 1080. It has a high hardenability. It has a mixture of carbon-rich martensite and small un-dissolved carbides. The carbides increase wear resistance. This helps to create a good balance between toughness and edge retention. This steel is often used for making hand tools.

Cold Steel is now switching these knives to O1 and billing it as a “superior” steel.  Sadly, in the last few years Cold Steel has been downgrading some steels (no one knows why, except maybe to increase profit margins).  The worst case of this was the Leatherneck, a once excellent version of the Ka-bar USMC knife which, when made from SK5, was excellent.  Cold Steel ruined the Leatherneck when they changed the steel to cheap 4116 stainless, an unimpressive metal often used to make nail clippers.

Now, O1 is not a bad metal, but it is not exactly the “superior” metal Cold Steel bills it as.  Here is knifesupply.com’s description of it:

O-1 : An [sic] good oil hardening, cold worked tool steel. It has excellent edge retention and toughness. But it is hard to grind and has very low corrosion resistance. It is popular among forgers because it is very forgiving and can be heat treated repeatedly if a mistake is made.

After doing a fair bit of research, I am left with the impression that O1 is too hard a steel to be good for a large knife like the Trail Master and Recon Scout.  Reports state that the edge may take small chips and that it is quite hard to sharpen.  Also that it is very prone to rusting.  I suspect Cold Steel’s real reasons for the switch have nothing to do with superior quality, but that it is easier to get in the USA and more flexible to work with.

I really liked Cold Steel once.  It’s too bad they’ve been making the moves they have in the last couple years under new management.  They are slowly alienating many of their once devoted aficionados.  For my part, I’m glad I bought two Trail Masters before the big change to O1.  I feel a more resilient, rust-resistant steel has far more bushcraft application than O-1.  I would even consider O-1 a downgrade for a smaller knife given its proneness to rusting unless one resides in an arid region such as the American desert southwest.

Jerusalem Artichokes: A Lot for a Little

Over 100 lbs of harvest from 25 feet of garden. Jerusalem artichokes give the most food for the least space.

Yesterday we harvested about 100 lbs of Jerusalem artichokes from a single, partial row of the Potato Patch. A mere 25 feet of row yielded all this, almost five pounds of food per linear foot. I know of nothing that yields so much food per cubic foot as the Jerusalem artichoke. And we have several thousand square feet planted back in the Elfwood, where we have allowed it to go wild, which it does so easily–a permanent and easily maintained emergency food supply.

Anyone with slightly to very acidic soil and a cool climate can grow these. Where you want them to grow for food, just till the ground as the tubers will only grow large if the ground is friable. They spread from rhizomes and maintain themselves effortlessly. To maintain the patch, just leave half of them in the ground every year, or set aside one tuber for every eighteen inches you want to plant. Or you can leave them alone and just let them spread. Trust me, they will.

Of Great Deer and Clear Dawns

I tracked down and took a huge nine point buck last week, which was my second deer harvest of the year.  This one yielded over 200 lbs of venison.  Now, both deep freezers are comfortably filled with the bounty of the forest and the root cellar groans with the produce of the homestead’s gardens.  And with a new dawn, a new Lord of the Glade emerges in the wood.

Knife Sharpening On the Cheap

The Ka-bark BK 17: affordable bushcraft excellence.

I’m going to give you a free bushcraft-improvised sharpening lesson. I normally use Japanese waterstones to get hair-popping edges, but this will get you a very good edge for a mere $12 dollars or so one time expense.  This can even give you a real hair-pooping edge if you already have good sharpening technique, though it will be harder on your blades than proper stones, ultimately reducing the life expectancy of your knives if you use it much.  But in a pinch, it’ll do.

Needed:

• 1 large firebrick for a woodstove, about 3x6x2 inches $5
• 1 small firebrick for a woodstove, about 3x6x1 inches $5
• 1 coffee mug $2
• 2 pieces of 2×4 scrap about a foot long
• Piece of old leather belt
• Piece of newspaper
• Toothpaste

Use only smooth firebricks.  Feel the firebricks. Large bricks usually have a semi-course grain. Small bricks usually have a finer grit.

Stroke knife edge backward on the large brick to establish edge (unnecessary if the knife is not very dull). Move to the small brick to refine the edge. Begin with moderate pressure and reduce rapidly to light pressure as edge forms.  Rinse bricks frequently with water so they don’t load up with metal dust.

Lay knife across a corner of the 2×4, apply no pressure save the weight of the blade, and draw twice to debur.

Stroke knife across the ceramic mug to refine the edge (about 20 strokes).

Take 2×4 piece, wet, and lay newspaper scrap over it. Strop knife on newspaper, 20 strokes to the side to remove micro-fine teeth created in sharpening.

Lay (or better, glue) the belt piece to the second 2×4, smooth side up. Strop knife lightly on belt, about 20 strokes to each side to hone edge.

Put toothpaste on the newspaper and spread thin and then strop 20 more times on each side. The micro-fine abrasive in toothpaste will render an even better edge.

As with all sharpening, technique is more important than the tool. You must learn to hold a consistent angle with light but firm pressure.  If you have good technique, you can get a razor sharp edge this way.  But I emphasize it is hard on a knife and will reduce its useful life.

Late Spring: Wild Food Foraging Course

Jerusalem artichokes . . . an oft overlooked source of wild bounty.

Most people know there are wild foods in the meadows and woods, but they don’t know how to identify them.  Even fewer know how to harvest and use them.  Some are even afraid of them.  According to David Arora, author of Mushrooms Demystified: “There are few things that strike as much fear in your average [person] as the mere mention of wild [foods]. . . [But] once you know what to look for, it’s about as difficult to tell a deadly Amanita from a savory chanterelle as it is a lima bean from an artichoke.”  Yet, in North America there are only a handful of deadly mushrooms, and most herbs that are toxic also taste foul enough you wouldn’t to eat them.  Having grown up up in the backwaters of the bayou country, and later lived a significant portion of my life in the Alaskan wilderness, I learned to rely heavily on Nature’s wild foods.  Now, when venturing into the bush, I don’t see an empty place where survival would be a struggle.  I see a place of plenty where a clever person could get by comfortably.  And this is a skill you can learn, too.

To learn more about this class, follow this link.

The Power of Tracking

A clear sign of a trail regularly used by a very large deer.

For the past several weeks, I have been engrossed in harvesting our annual venison.  Nova Scotia has plentiful deer except on the isle of Cape Breton due to irresponsible logging that destroys their habitat.   This year, two deer were allowed in the region of Twa Corbies Hollow.  By applying tracking skills, I took both deer within days of the opening of the season.  One of the deer was typical, the other was exceptionally huge–one of the largest bucks taken this year.  It did not have the biggest rack, but I do not hunt for trophies, I hunt for meat.  It was phenomenally large and yielded over 200 lbs of venison once dressed out.  In both cases, taking each whitetail was fairly straightforward.  I scouted until I found an area that was populated with deer spoor and waited for the deer to come to me.  Of course, that requires having tracking skill and knowing how to evade detection by those animals.

The track of an enormous buck that I stumbled across in early September, tracked down to his home territory, and took a week after the season opened.

The second deer–the enormous one–required a bit more effort.  One day while out hiking, I spotted an enormous track.  I could tell it was fresh, and by the size that the deer that made it was exceptionally large: at least 300 lbs.  Applying principles of tracking and animal behavior, I was able to deduce the likely territory of this massive buck.  It kept to regions of the homestead we call the East Glade where long ago cut-back woods have yielded wild grassy meadows.  The East glade borders the cultivated meadows around the cottage to the west and old forest on the east.  Brooks and ponds can be found at the east and west sides and at the edge of the Old Wood.  Deer require all kinds of browse and habitat, so they tend to keep long, narrow territories in order to get into a variety of terrains, so I scouted through the likely area of its territory until I found a place where deer trails were so established they were like ruts in the Earth.  There I found abundant droppings and more tracks of this massive buck.  Where they were most concentrated and fresh, I knew I had found one of his regular routes.

Further applying tracking skills, I located a site 175 yards away in a region concealed by shadows of young spruces behind rock, where scrub would effectively break up my outline and the prevailing wind was typically downwind of the site I anticipated the deer to appear.  Seven days later, he appeared exactly at the spot I anticipated and with no idea I was there, he was calm and presented an easy target.

The massive buck passes the trail cam I left at a spot he frequents in the heart of his territory.

The ability to track has made me almost 100% successful in my hunts and wildlife observation for more than twenty years.  I feel tracking is an essential skill of both bushcrafters and homesteaders, whether your goal is to observe wildlife, study their movements and diets, keep predators away from livestock or hunt food.  It is also one of the most challenging skills to acquire.

In spring of 2014, Twa Corbies will offer an introduction to tracking.  Participants will learn to recognize various spoor: tracks, trails, various droppings and indicators such as kill sites and old den markers.  Students will also learn how to age spoor and the challenges to doing this accurately.  Students will receive an introduction into the behavior of wildlife and how to apply such knowledge to the interpretation of spoor.  Just click on the link to learn more!